June 16, 2014 by Born To Organize

Birds and Blueberries

A few months ago I took a beginning birding class from Let’s Go Birding! Although we learned about hummingbirds in the classroom, the field trip the following Saturday covered the gamut. Ever since I’ve enjoyed identifying the birds visiting our garden.

I have a nifty “Quick Guide” to commonly seen local birds to help me out. The illustrated guide gives a brief description of the bird’s size and coloring, along with the time of year they appear in your area. They’ve even provided a tiny box so you can check off the ones you’ve seen. Who can resist a little check box? Not me!

Ana’s Hummingbird

The Ana’s hummingbirds are here year round. We have three feeders to choose from, along with Mexican Sage, Abutilon, Raspberries and a few other flowers they enjoy. During nesting season the females also eat soft spiders and other small insects for protein.

Lesser Goldfinch

I spotted a Lesser Goldfinch this morning in the triangle garden. This one is enjoying Bachelor Button seeds. I didn’t know before today that Bachelor Buttons and sunflowers are from the same family. They’re both members of the Asteraceae or Compositae family, a favorite of this tiny yellow bird.

Bewick’s Wren

Bewick’s Wrens eat the eggs, larvae, pupae, and adults of insects and other small invertebrates. They’ll occasionally eat seeds and fruit. I spied this one over the weekend on the back fence. Dropped fruit means lots of tiny fruit flies, so as soon as I cleared out with my camera, I’m sure a smorgasbord was under way.

So, what do blueberries and birds have in common? Absolutely nothing. I’m just delighted to have my first handful of blueberries flourishing in the garden.

Blueberries

June 13, 2014 by Born To Organize

Daddy’s Designs, Daughter’s Haiku

In honor of my dad, I’ve written haiku to go with his landscape drawings.

Dad painted and drew as a hobby, but he also studied horticulture and worked at a nursery. These drawings are loose pages from one of his sketch book. My parents sold his paintings before we moved to the US in 1966. These are among the few possessions to arrive with us from Canada. I don’t know if he drew them for a class or for a potential client, but I love them dearly.

Many years ago I had one of dad’s landscape paintings professionally framed. It was expensive at the time, so I never thought about framing his sketches. I should frame them now. The thought just occurred to me as I type this. I guess I needed to write this post.

Daddy’s Designs

Beautiful drawings
lovely landscapes in pencil
Eric Milner. Dad.

Eric Milner: Garden Design

Art flowed from his hands
three-dimensional gardens.
May I sit under the tree?

Eric Milner Design: Patio Near Garage

Eric Milner Designs: Planting Pocket

Garden steps and ramps
I’m glad he would never know
Sharon would need one

Eric Milner Designs: Steps and Ramps

Carport patio
storage wall, movable planter
a caption haiku

Carport Patio: Eric Milner Designs

Eric Milner Designs: Zig-zag

Write your own Haiku here.

June 12, 2014 by Born To Organize

Lemony Lemons

We have lemons! Tiny, just-getting-started lemons. Aren’t they cute?

Objects in this photo are smaller than they appear

It’s been a long time coming, but our dwarf lemon tree is beginning to bear fruit.

More lemons

According to Wikipedia:

Citrus × meyeri, the Meyer lemon, is a citrus fruit native to China thought to be a cross between a true lemon and either a mandarin or common orange. It was introduced to the United States in 1908 by the agricultural explorer Frank Nicholas Meyer, an employee of the United States Department of Agriculture who collected a sample of the plant on a trip to China.

The Meyer lemon is commonly grown in China in garden pots as an ornamental tree. It became popular as a food item in the United States after being rediscovered by chefs such as Alice Waters at Chez Panisse during the California Cuisine revolution.

Popularity further climbed when Martha Stewart began featuring them in her recipes.

I didn’t know any of this.

Dwarf Lemon Tree

Two years ago, our tree started producing thorns. I assumed this was a sign that it was ready to bear fruit. Further reading proved otherwise. True lemons have sharp thorns, but the hybrids do not. Any thorns found on a Meyer Lemon are apparently the product of the original rootstock.

This article say that: article,

If the thorns are on branches sprouting from below the grafting union the best thing to do is to prune them off. Those branches won’t produce Meyer lemons and your tree is wasting energy growing them anyway.
If the thorns are on the Meyer lemon portion of the tree and the tree is otherwise healthy, the best thing to do is ignore them and protect your hands with gloves when you harvest the lemons.

I went back and checked all the branches with tiny fruit and most of them have thorns.

This early in the game, I’m inclined to leave the thorns where they are. Since the tree is producing fruit it seems best to leave well enough alone. They won’t ripen for several months, so I can keep my eye on things and see what plays out.

What do you think? Would you remove the thorns?

Thorns

June 11, 2014 by Born To Organize

Just a Day in the Garden

Things are humming along in the garden these days. Our tomatoes and raspberries are jockeying for position, and the basil is finally growing up. If you look carefully, you can see it in the lower, right corner of the box near the hose I was too lazy to put away. [ahem]

Tomatoes, Raspberries and Basil

The potatoes I didn’t plant, jumped the edge of the box, happy in the heat. The strawberries look nice, but for the first time in my gardening history, they’ve been over run by ants. Ack! I reached in for a juicy red berry and came out with a handful of swarming ants along with the fruit. When I did find an unencumbered strawberry, it looked great but tasted bland. I think this is the last season for them.

Compost potatoes spill from the box

My EarthBox pumpkins are growing well, but for some reason the water wicking system isn’t working. I’ve had to hand water three days in a row as they’re drooping by mid day. I may remove the compost covers tomorrow when it’s still cool and give them a long soak. I’ll let you know it that does the trick.

Ever-mischievous Mouse the cat cornered an iridescent lizard on the garden path. I put Mouse in a ‘time out’ for a spell, then encouraged the tiny lizard to make haste. He was happy to oblige.

Western Fence Lizard

Mouse looks innocent when he’s asleep

One of the squirrels dropped by and offered to sample the apricots and plums. Just a couple of bites out of each one should do it. Yep, yep…carry on, carry on. Nothing to worry about here.

Sampled Fruit

Taste testing the fruit: we passed!

I have a new theory about their bushy tails. I think that’s where they store their ego.

In better news, the fruit covered in netting remains untouched. Hurray for that.

Thanks for following along on my garden adventures. Your companionable comments are among the highlights of my day.

June 6, 2014 by Born To Organize

Loving and Losing Beijing

It’s been a surreal week of highs and lows. My oldest son turned 17 on Wednesday. The same day Beijing stopped eating. She moved from spot to spot, unresponsive to any attention we paid. I was so afraid she would die on his birthday, but she survived the night. My husband hoped that it was only an infection, and that a trip to the vet could heal her. She’s been on four medications for a year treating her heart and thyroid, but she was happy, ravenous, cantankerous…in short, her wonderful self.

Alas, the news wasn’t good. Her body is shutting down, and they’ve added probable cancer to the list. I’m going to see her now, and will be there with her as she eases out of this world. My youngest son graduates 8th grade in a few hours. I’m hoping to keep this news at bay till then.

Thank you for gracing our lives, Beijing.

Sunning herself in the garden bed

Her favorite place in the house

Keeping me company on the garden swing

The ‘Look”

A favorite spot

Please hold all my calls.

In the arms of my youngest son

June 4, 2014 by Born To Organize

The Fruits of my Obsession

Okay, I’m exaggerating a little, but I do tend to fuss and fret over the fruit growing in our garden. Since the rats, birds, ants, snails and squirrels take their share, I’ve realized that volume is key. If your plants produce, say, five strawberries, chances are slim that you’ll be able to harvest any for yourself. On the other hand, dozens of strawberries, oranges, raspberries or plums make for a fruitful harvest. Hence, my fruitful obsession.

This is year five in the garden for our 4-in-1 fruit cocktail tree. All the pruning I did years two through four has paid off. We have a bumper crop this year from two of the four grafts.

Apricots

Plums

Lone Peach

Four grafts (the small ‘twig’ should be a nectarine)

One of the grafts died early on, but I recently learned from my friend Doug that we can re-graft! That was a bit of good news. The apricots and plums look great. The peach graft suffered leaf curl this year. So far only one, rock-hard peach.

We’ll still have plenty of fruit to eat and share, so that is pretty exciting.

Our 25-year-old orange tree is covered in fruit year round. The oranges are no longer sweet enough to eat alone, but my boys love making fresh-squeezed orange juice. We’re also doing our part to keep the neighborhood rats from getting scurvy. They have their own little health clinic in the backyard.

Orange tree

Tree Rat

After several dismal years with the blueberry plant, I’m seeing signs of honest to goodness fruit this year. In addition to being tasty, blueberries are loaded with high antioxidants.

Blueberries beginning to form

A few strawberry plants jumped from the box and continue to happily grow in the nearby gravel. Thanks to composting, they’re surrounded by volunteer potato plants. It looks like a party out there with the gorgeous greens, reds and lavender.

Strawberries and potatoes

The early heat sent our raspberries into overdrive. They’re pumping out flowers and fruit, in addition to providing nectar for the hummingbirds. I’ve seen the little hummers sipping nectar twice from the white flowers, but didn’t have my camera in tow. I’m happy to see them enjoying the flowers; we’re happily enjoying the fruits of my obsession.

My oldest son turns 17 today. Happy Birthday, C!

A wee birthday celebration in the fairy garden

June 3, 2014 by Born To Organize

Mystery Solved: Love-in-a-mist

Pauline noted that ‘every garden needs a bit of mystery’ but for now I’m happy to have this one solved. I posted this photo last week, and asked for help identifying it. Extensive Google searches were no help.

Mystery flower

Three cheers for my blogging community! Cathy of Words and Herbs thought it might be ‘Nigella.’ Anne of Anne Lawson suggested ‘love-in-a-mist.’ They’re both right.

These wonderful, self seeded flowers are Nigella damascena – Love-in-a-Mist. Thank you both.

Nigella damascena in bloom and going to seed

Buds and Blooms

California Avocado Cupcakes

Over the weekend I sampled a delicious avocado cupcake at Sunset Celebration Weekend. I meant to share it with you yesterday. The cupcake and the frosting both contain avocados as a healthy fat alternative. You can download the recipe at the California Avocado Commission. Please let me know if you give them a try.

May 29, 2014 by Born To Organize

Triangle Garden: Come What May

Sidewalk view

My little triangle garden is filling out nicely. It’s the end of May and the mystery seedlings finally revealed themselves. Surprisingly, only one of them turned out to be a Cosmo.

A single Cosmo

The purple flower with the dark center remains a mystery. I’ve tried a Google search by image and description, but can’t seem to get a hit. Any ideas? Just before it opens, the bud looks like a paper lantern.

Unknown

Other than the Statice which wintered over and handful of transplanted pansies, the rest of the flowers ‘volunteered’ from last year.

I scattered a packet of seed mix in the remaining open spaces, hoping it all fills in with what the garden centers like to call ‘a riot of color.’ So far, purple rules the day.

Gardening from seeds is so darn fun.

Bachelor Buttons

May 28, 2014 by Born To Organize

Books from Down Under

Anne Lawson is a talented botanical artist and blogger living in Australia. She says she is:

fascinated by natural objects like seed pods, shells and leaves. But most especially feathers. I pick them up, admire them, draw them. I have a cupboard full of feathers that are my inspiration. (Lucky that they are as light as a ………!)

Lucky for me, Anne is also a lover of books with a generous heart. Anne mailed two beautifully illustrated children’s classics with the inscription “All the way from Australia” for our Little Free Library.

Possum Magic by Mem Fox

Possum Magic by Mem Fox happens to be one of my favorites. Ironically, we once owned an autographed copy when we met the author at a children’s bookstore. We gave our copy to a friend when my boys outgrew it. I’m delighted to add a new copy to the library.

I’m not familiar with the second book, To the Top End: Our Trip to Australia.The illustrations are fabulous, so I’m excited to dive in. I’ll enjoy reading it a few times before it makes its way to the curb. Children’s literature holds a special place in my heart.

To the Top End: Our Trip Across Australia

Anne also sent several of her hand drawn and painted book marks. Aren’t they fun?

Anne Lawson Design bookmarks

Thank you Anne, for your lovely gifts.

If you’re not already following along, you can read her blog and see her botanical art at Anne Lawson. Check our her Etsy shop too at Anne4bags.

Little Free Library books from around the world

May 22, 2014 by Born To Organize

Sunflowers Under Cover

A few years back, I had to plant my sunflower seeds three times. The first crop, lovingly planted with my son, disappeared. I’m not naming names, but I saw this little fella in the neighborhood around the same time.

Doesn’t he look guilty?

I planted the second batch indoors, then transplanted them, but they were leggy and weak.

Refusing to be outsmarted yet again, I came up with a solution after wandering around the hardware store. I bought small screens, designed to be placed in windows for about $6 a piece. Any money I saved buying seeds instead of starter plants went out the window that year, but since then, they’ve proved to be an investment. I even loaned them to a friend off-season to rabbit-proof one of her plants. You can read my screen saver tutorial here.

This year, I simply planted the seeds and immediately covered them. Within two weeks, they’ve sprouted and grown. Once they’ve set true leaves, I’ll uncover them and off we’ll go.

Screen Savers protect this year’s crop

They’re not pretty, but they get the job done and they are only there temporarily. Mouse keeps a close eye on things.

Screening allows air and water to circulate

Budding sunflowers

I planted two varieties this year, both from Botanical Interests®: Sunflower Snacker and Sunflower Florist’s Sunny Bouquet, both Helianthus annuus (hybrid). The Snackers, planted in the back row, will grow 6′ – 8′ tall (1.8 – 2.4 m). The Florist’s Sunny Bouquet are a shorter variety, reaching 4′ – 5′ tall (1.2 – 1.5 m).

Please pop by again for updates. Meanwhile, how do you outsmart the foragers in your neighborhood?